Women's Golf Heading To NCAA East Regional

Tuesday

FAYETTEVILLE – The fifth-ranked Arkansas women’s golf team was selected to the NCAA East Regional on Monday.

This year’s selection is the 12th NCAA Regional appearance for the Razorback women’s golf team and the 11th consecutive selection.

Arkansas has finished in the top eight five times to advance to the NCAA Championship. It includes appearances the past two years.

The NCAA East Regional will be played May 9-11 at the Auburn University Club in Auburn, Ala. Second-ranked and defending Southeastern Conference championship Alabama headlines the field as the top seeded team at Auburn. Arkansas is the two seed and joins No. 8 UCLA, No. 11 North Carolina State, No. 12 Virginia, No. 18 Oklahoma State, No. 20 Tulane, No. 23 Texas and No. 26 Notre Dame.

“The approach is the exact same as any other tournament,” Arkansas coach Shauna Estes-Taylor said. “We work to improve every day that we train knowing that we are better today than we were when school started in August. We build our mental and physical games to be at our very best this time of year. Our past competitions and daily practices prepare us and are great learning tools for our future competitions.

“Our team motto this year has been ‘commit to the journey’. We believe that Regionals is another stop along our journey and that we are prepared for anything that we will see.”

Senior Victoria Vela will make her fourth consecutive NCAA Regional appearance with her best finish coming in 2010 when she tied for 38th overall. Juniors Emily Tubert and Emma Lavy have two regional appearances under their belts as well. Tubert tied for third in 2011, equaling the best individual finish by a Razorback at an NCAA Regional.

“Our leadership is the life line of our team,” Estes-Taylor said. “It really dictates our energy and in our sport it is very contagious. We have worked to make sure that we are all in a good place and ready to go. Our older players have done a great job of setting the tone for our younger team members.”